A brief what is and isn't KCS

Following last weeks KCS course, I thought I would share what it is and what it isn't.
Honestly before anything has even started with implementing KCS there is a resistance movement brewing.

Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is a methodology and a set of practices and processes that focuses on knowledge as a key asset of the customer/technical support organisation. KCS seeks to:

* Create content as a by-product of solving problems, which is better known as Incident Management within the ITIL incident management process, as well as the problem management process. As people capture information related to an incident, they create knowledge that can be reused within the support process by others as well as customers with access to a self-service knowledge base.

* Evolve content based on demand and usage. As people interact with the knowledge based within the incident management process, they must review it before delivering the knowledge to a customer. If they discover the need to correct or enhance the knowledge, they will fix it at that time or flag it for another person to fix if they do not have the access authority to the knowledge. Under this model, knowledge is evolved just-in-time based on demand instead of just-in-case. This lowers the cost of knowledge management.

* Develop a knowledge base of an organisation's collective experience to-date. New knowledge capture within the incident management process is an experience resulting from one interaction. The knowledge has not been validated or verified beyond the initial incident. Thus the initial knowledge is not as trusted in this state, which is referred to as Draft knowledge. It is not until reuse occurs that trust is improved. At some point the knowledge will be marked as trusted and either Approved for internal use or Published for self-service.
The knowledge base under the KCS methodology includes knowledge that is at different states of trust and visibility. The collective experiences to date challenges the traditional thinking that all knowledge in a knowledge base must perfect, validated, and highly trusted.

* Reward learning, collaboration, sharing and improving. The culture of the organization must change to recognize the value of an individual based on the knowledge they share that enables the organization to be more effective and efficient.


KCS is not
* Another tool or piece of software.
* A set of directories or documents, or an information storage system.
* A replacement for a Wiki or Intranet, and it won’t duplicate what is already in these systems.

Having resistance to change is to be expected and should be treated as a positive opportunity to demonstrait improvements, because these people really want the best for their organisation, however also want to see you personally fail.

Be strong and fight the good fight.

- Eric